Sunday, January 31, 2016

A provocative response to those rejecting a favorable comparison of Benedict with Pope Francis. By traditionalist journalist, Michael Matt, "Benedict & Francis: Two Peas in a Papal Pod?" (Remnant, January 26, 2016). Matt offers an educated guess as to why Benedict abdicated, or had to abdicate, suggesting that packs of liberal wolves hounded him out of office. (What pressures they brought to bear, God only knows.) He compares Benedict, whose Summorum Pontificum and lifting of the SSPX excommunications outraged many, with the direction Francis has taken things, asking: "What would life be like right now without the powerful spiritual bulwarks (and human consolation!) provided by hundreds of traditional Mass centers around the world, established as a direct result of [Summorum Pontificum]?" Could anyone in his right mind contend that the escalating crisis in the Church today would not have been exponentially worse, he asks, were it not for those bulwarks thrown up by Benedict? "They got rid of [Benedict] for a reason, which the St. Gallen Group now brazenly admits," writes Matt. "Of all the post-conciliar popes, Benedict was the one who finally blinked. And history may well reveal that the reign of Pope Benedict helped undermine the very Modernist revolution which, ironically enough, Benedict himself had had a hand in a half century earlier," he adds. (Remember, back when Fr. Joseph Ratzinger worked along side Karl Rahner, and was a peritus at Vatican II under Cardinal Frings?) There's much more to it than this bit here, but check it out. Food for thought.

Former Diocese of Marquette, Michigan Ordinary, [Arch]bishop Alexander Sample, now Archbishop of Portland, Oregon, is well-known for his devotion to the Sacred Liturgy in both the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms. One of his most significant acts as bishop of that diocese was the publication on January 21, 2013 of “Rejoice in the Lord Always”, a pastoral letter on Sacred Music which explained the sorts of music that are appropriate for Holy Mass.

Current Marquette Ordinary, Bishop John Doerfler has expanded upon that work with the publication this past Tuesday, January 26 of “Sing to the Lord, All the Earth! An Instruction on Sacred Music in Divine Worship”. Targeted at celebrations of the Ordinary Form, the document directs that all parishes in the diocese will, by December 31, 2020, implement a series of norms, highlights of which follow:

All parishes and schools will learn to chant the Ordinary parts of the Mass in English that are found in the Roman Missal, and they will be sung by the congregation some of the time throughout the year.

All parishes and schools will learn to chant the [Latin] Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei from the Missa Jubiláte Deo, and they will be sung by the congregation some of the time throughout the year.

All parishes and schools will learn to chant the Communion Antiphon in English to a very simple tone that everyone can sing, and the Communion Antiphon will be sung at every Sunday Mass. A hymn may be sung after the Communion Antiphon while the congregation is receiving the Blessed Sacrament.

A Diocesan Hymnal will be used to ensure the musical quality and doctrinal integrity of the Sacred Music. The hymnal will include a broad repertoire of hymns from classical to contemporary.

Once the diocesan hymnal is implemented, no other hymnal may be used.

Overall this is quite a commendable initiative, with the possible exception of the mandated hymnal. No one hymnal can ever hope to include all of the hymns suitable for the entire liturgical year. However, if the effort is to set a baseline standard to eliminate inappropriate music currently being used, then it is an understandable step. Poor quality sacred music is one of the main turn-offs and causes of desacralization of Catholic worship today. Conversely, requiring reverent and doctrinally sound music can only help to improve the Sensus Cathólicus of the faithful.

BBC Radio On Demand Recording of Extraordinary Form Vespers at the London Oratory

This column has many times made mention of the truly exceptional liturgical experience that is Vespers at the Brompton Oratory in London, England. A paid professional choir – among the best in the world – sings Vespers in the Extraordinary Form every Sunday at 3:30 PM, accompanied by a polyphonic Office Hymn and Magníficat. A gaggle of priests and brothers tend to the ceremonies in the sanctuary. The service concludes with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament [omitted in this particular broadcast], followed by a procession to a massive Side Altar dedicated to the Blessed Mother [photo below by Oratory Assistant Music Director Charles Cole], at which a polyphonic setting of the seasonal Marian antiphon is sung.

You now have the opportunity to listen to one of these magnificent Vespers services on-line: Through Sunday, February 21, 2016 a London Oratory Vespers broadcast is available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06vs27l. If you appreciate sacred music, you will find much to enjoy in this recording. It’s the gold standard to which every other choir serving traditional liturgy can aspire.

The broadcast is part of the BBC’s Choral Evensong series, which features similar services from Catholic and Anglican churches across the U.K.

Sun. 02/07: No Mass at OCLMA/Academy of the Sacred Heart – Mass resumes at 9:45 AM the following Sunday, February 14

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Albertus (Detroit), Academy of the Sacred Heart (Bloomfield Hills), and St. Alphonsus and Holy Name of Mary Churches (Windsor) bulletin inserts for January 31, 2016. Hat tip to Alex Begin, author of the column.]

* NB: The SSPX chapels among those Mass sites listed above are posted here because the Holy Father has announced that "those who during the Holy Year of Mercy approach these priests of the Fraternity of St Pius X to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation shall validly and licitly receive the absolution of their sins." These chapels are not listed among the approved parishes and worship sites on archdiocesan websites.

Saturday, January 30, 2016

As reported by Rorate Caeli today, the "Cirinnà Bill" being debated in the Italian Parliament to allow "same-sex unions" in that central nation of Catholicism managed to bring Catholics from all over Italy to Rome this Saturday.

"The image from the Circo Massimo is unmistakable: on this 'Family Day', a huge multitude of Italian families (including many friends of this blog) gathered to protest the government's support of the counternatural bill."

There are those who are green with envy at yesterday’s immense and momentous Family Day, which, for the first time in Italian history filled up Rome’s Circo Massimo with no union, political or industrial organizational backing and no paid travel expenses. These were people who went to the Circo Massimo at their own expense, with enormous sacrifices, for an ideal, for their children, faced with a political class that has thrown ideals under the bus, seeing as it is only motivated by power. A political class that is quite incapable of representing these people and in reality, was never given any power by the electorate.

There are “ envious individuals” in the “Palaces of Power” (political, ideological and journalistic), but even in the palaces of ecclesiastical power, who did all they possibly could to defuse Family Day.

Suffice to say that in yesterday’s Osservatore Romano, there wasn’t even a line on the first page dedicated to this extraordinary event (the same in “La Repubblica,” Bergoglio’s other newspaper).

What were they observing at the Osservatore Romano not to have even noticed the mass of Christian people arriving in Rome? ....

The Argentine Pope made his debut in 2013 by saying that a shepherd has to take on the odour of his sheep, but yesterday’s event showed [clearly]that Bergoglio loves the perfume of the Scalfarian “parlours”* not the odour of the Christian flock....

Unfortunately yesterday, Pope Francis’ absence was very evident and his aloofness palpable. He was remembered [at the event] and most certainly a sign from him would have been welcomed with immense joy, but he didn’t even send a greeting to Family Day. And at his general audience that morning, not a word was mentioned about the Christian populace gathered together on the other side of the City.

Yes indeed: another excellent Download, a half-hour panel discussion this time of the Anglican Ordinariate, Summorum Pontificum, and the "blowback" and fallout the Church has witnessed -- partricularly for Summorum Pontificum -- from both clerics and laity who identify the post-Vatican II regnum as a rejection of pre-Vatican II tradition: "Tradition Under Fire" (Church Militant, January 29, 2016). A bit of Anglican history about the Book of Common Prayer, a bit of Catholic history about the liturgical changes spanning the last five decades, and a fine discussion of what is at stake.

What a terrific piece, even as it charitably identifies the Anglican grand poobah as "over-egging the pudding." Haha!

On reading that I thought, 'It's an unsolicited miracle, really, wrought just for me, that Francis has not waded into with eulogizing humdinger of his own!' So then I googled 'Francis & Bowie,' and laughed again, on discovering that the ever-fizzy KJL had managed to concoct a Francis/Bowie connection to fill any perceived vacuum.

I am 74-years-old. I converted to the Roman Catholic Church at the age of 17 in the last year of the pontificate of Pope Pius XII. I did so because I was under the conviction that I had to accept and have faith that Jesus Christ was my savior, and I believed it. And I believed that I had to be a baptized member of his Church to have a chance of salvation. So I converted and was baptized in the Catholic Church, and then I was confirmed.

Over the years I have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to both Peters’ Pence (the pope’s own treasury about which you of course must be very familiar), and my local parish and diocese.

During that time I attended thousands of Masses, hundreds of holy hours and novenas, said thousands of rosaries, and made hundreds of trips to the Confessional.

Now in 2015 and 2016 I have read your words and those of your “Pontifical Commission.” You now teach that because I am a racial Jew, God’s covenant with me was never broken, and cannot be broken. You don’t qualify that teaching by specifying anything I might do that would threaten the Covenant, which you say God has with me because I am a Jew. You teach that it’s an unbreakable Covenant. You don’t even say that it depends on me being a good person. Logically speaking, if God’s Covenant with me is unbreakable, then a racial Jew such as I am can do anything he wants and God will still maintain a Covenant with me and I will go to heaven.

Your Pontifical Commission wrote last December, “The Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews…it does not in any way follow that the Jews are excluded from God’s salvation because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God.”

You are the Pontiff. I believe what your Commission teaches under your banner and in your name, and what you declared during your visit to the synagogue in January. As a result, I no longer see any point in getting up every Sunday morning to go to Mass, say rosaries, or attend the Rite of Reconciliation on Saturday afternoon. All of those acts are superfluous for me. Predicated on your teaching, I now know that due to my special racial superiority in God’s eyes, I don’t need any of it.

I don’t see any reason now as to why I was baptized in 1958. There was no need for me to be baptized. I no longer see why there was a need for Jesus to come to earth either, or preach to the Jewish children of Abraham of his day. As you state, they were already saved as a result of their racial descent from the Biblical patriarchs. What would they need him for?

In light of what you and your Pontifical Commission have taught me, it appears that the New Testament is a fraud, at least as it applies to Jews. All of those preachings and disputations to the Jews were for no purpose. Jesus had to know this, yet he persisted in causing a lot of trouble for the Jews by insisting they had to be born again, they had to believe he was their Messiah, they had to stop following their traditions of men, and that they couldn’t get to heaven unless they believed that he was the Son of God.

Consequently, you will be hearing from my lawyer. I am filing suit against the papacy and the Roman Catholic Church. I want my money back, with interest, and I am seeking compensatory and punitive damages for the psychological harm your Church caused me, by making me think I needed something besides my own exalted racial identity, in order to go to heaven after I die.

I am litigating as well over the time that I wasted that I could have spent working in my business, instead of squandering it worshipping a Jesus that your Church now says I don’t need to believe in for my salvation. Your prelates and clerics told me something very different in 1958. I’ve been robbed!

Sincerely,

Pinchus Feinstein

2617646 Ocean View Ave.

Miami Beach, Florida 33239

P.S. I'm transmitting this letter to Hoffman, an ex-AP reporter from New York, in the expectation that he will bring it to the attention of those who should know about it. I am transmitting it to him in the form of a dream, but nevertheless, it represents the feelings of many victims of your robber Church.—Pinch

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

An absolutely terrific discussion of the comparative distinctives of the two forms of the Latin Rite liturgy by Joseph Gonzalez and Brad Eli in "Traditional Liturgy Matters" (Church Militant, January 22, 2016). Guests also include include Fr. Michael Magiera, FSSP, and Christendom College's Director of Admissions Sam Phillips, who explore other aspects of the Catholic traditionalist movement around the world.

Monday, January 25, 2016

This appears in a half-hour-long discussion among a panel of five members, including one woman (a Notre Dame law school grad) and four men (another Notre Dame grad with a pontifical degree in theology and several others) in the new "Download" program feature on "False Ecumenism" (January 25, 2016), which you can view with a $10/month premium account at CMTV. Enjoy.

Sunday, January 24, 2016

We are in the midst of the Church Unity Octave, a thing given scant attention to here, not for want of the desire that all Christians profess the one, true Catholic faith. Putting the matter thus already slants the issue in the decidedly Catholic way the Church has always understood and intended the unity of Christians. Indeed, how could it be otherwise? It is not a matter of vain hubris but of revealed (and thus unalterable) truth that Christ founded but one Church (a fact which all Christians assert in the Creed) and that this one Church cannot be other than the Catholic Church, that is, the one built upon the Rock, Saint Peter and his successors. The reason for slighting these eight days of unity is that church unity has become, by and large, a dead issue with most non-Catholics. Moreover, the intentions for each of its days as the Popes originally published them read today [seem] rather embarrassing to a people whose mind has been formed by the modernist heresy of indifferentism (that obvious falsehood that holds all religions to be equally valid, or equally good). Just for the record, I quote for you here the very unpolitic (“incorrect”), designated prayer intentions for each day of the Church unity Octave, as the Holy See had originally designed them: 1. The return of all the ‘other sheep’ to the one fold of St. Peter, the one shepherd. 2. The return of all Oriental Separatists (i.e. the Orthodox) to communion with the Apostolic See. 3. The submission of Anglicans to the authority of the Vicar of Christ (viz., the Pope). 4. That Christians in America may become one in communion with the Chair of St. Peter. 5. The return to the Sacraments of lapsed Catholics. 6. The conversion of the Jews (i.e. to Christianity). 7. The missionary conquest of the world for Christ. (Day 8 is the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. It would be understood here that he was converted from Judaism to the only Church identically subsisting in the Catholic Church.) So, there you have it, real ecumenism – the embrace of all believers in the one, holy, Catholic Church. We’ve come a long way away from having the mind of the Church on this matter, due to the aforementioned modernist indoctrination by which many Catholics have no grasp of the exigency of truth to exclude error. Asserting what is logical necessity which no rational mind can deny (namely that there can be only one truth), we who hold fast to it are made to seem bigoted and uncharitable. To the contrary, nothing could be more conciliating or more loving towards others that to proclaim truth in all its disarming honesty, even in the face of some glaringly compromised statements to the contrary issuing from our ecclesiastical leaders. It makes one want to cry out in desperation with words from the psalter, “Heu mihi, quia incolatus meus prolongatus est!” (Pardon my French. But the Vulgate is so expressive: “Woe is me, for my sojourning is extended” – meaning that I have to live yet longer in this valley of tears.)In the ancient tradition, this Sunday begins the pre-Lenten season of Septuagesima. I have before lamented the passing of this preparatory season which eases us into Lent rather than lets us be rudely hit on Ash Wednesday. A thoughtful parishioner wisely suggested that we begin now to plan what we should do for this holy season to come upon us lest it catch us unawares. I heartily endorse this proposal and invite parishioners to exercise their creativity and share some ideas they may have on how to spend well the Forty Days. Here are some of the proffered ideas, slightly modified.Prayers and Religious Practices: Daily Mass. Daily holy hour. Daily rosary. DailyDivine Mercy chaplet. Daily Stations of the Cross. Weekly confession. Daily prayers for the Dead. Daily Litany of Our Lady of Loretto. Daily reading of the Catechism. Daily Bible reading. Daily reading Fulton Sheen’s The Life of Christ or The Imitation of Christ, or the Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales, or St. Alphonsus Liguori’s Preparation for Death.Penances: One main meal only per day. Cold versus warmed foods. No desserts. No meat. No stimulants (sugars, tobacco, coffee). Dialing down the heat in home and car. Getting up a half hour earlier for a daily meditation. Cleaning and ordering the home or workplace in a penitential spirit. Good works: Visiting the sick or those in nursing homes. Spending more time with family (sic!). Cooking meals for the elderly or sick who have difficulty cooking for themselves. Shoveling a neighbor’s drive or walkway. Increasing support to the parish (a pastor’s favorite!). Going out of one’s way to do helpful things to people in one’s life, especially family members. No doubt there is something here for everyone. I’d be glad to share with fellow parishioners other ideas you may have if you get them to me in good time. But whatever you decide to do, do it for the Lord and not for some lesser, natural motives which would diminish or even nullify their merit.Fr. Perrone

For years, the Miles Christi order of priests and brothers has been a quiet and somewhat mysterious presence around the Archdiocese of Detroit. With a base of operations in the fairly distant suburb of South Lyon, they have no regular presence in local parish life. Rather, their ministry has consisted largely of running retreats and conferences across North America. For a while they had a role in Campus Ministry at Madonna University in Livonia. Much of what Latin Mass goers know about Miles Christi has been relayed to us over the years by TLM stalwart Leeta von Buelow, whose son [Brother] Jaspar is a member of the order.

Because of their doctrinal orthodoxy, the occasional invitation had been extended to them to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass, but it was always politely declined.

In 2012, when their new community house was built, a chapel was constructed in it, with a High Altar and Communion Rail. Mass there is apparently celebrated exclusively ad oriéntem. [The above photo from the Miles Christi web site, www.mileschristi.org, appears to depict Holy Mass in the Ordinary Form.] Word has gotten out that weekday private Low Masses in the Extraordinary Form have begun to take place in the chapel. This is a remarkable development to take place out of the blue, given how challenging it can be to get priests to take an interest in the Traditional Liturgy.

Intrepid Oakland County Latin Mass Association volunteer Jon McDonnell took it upon himself to approach Miles Christi and inquire whether one of their priests might be interested in celebrating a Tridentine Mass for the OCLMA. We’re delighted to report that he was successful: On Sunday, April 10 at 9:45 AM, Fr. Paul de Soza, MC, Vice Superior of the Miles Christi community in South Lyon, will celebrate the order’s first local public Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form at the Academy of the Sacred Heart Chapel in Bloomfield Hills. Following Mass there will be a reception at which Fr. de Soza will give a presentation on “Ways to Deepen Your Spiritual Life”. Mark your calendars to join us for this event.

National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica Indulgences

Since having been designated as Metro Detroit’s first Minor Basilica, Royal Oak’s National Shrine of the Little Flower has become a site where pilgrims may gain a Plenary Indulgence by visiting on the following dates of the year and devoutly reciting an Our Father and the Creed:

June 29, the Solemnity of Ss. Peter & Paul, Apostles

August 2, the day of the “Portiuncula” indulgence

October 1, the Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux

December 23, the anniversary of dedication of the original Shrine of the Little Flower Church in 1936

December 23, the anniversary of the granting of the title of [Minor] Basilica to the Shrine

When assisting in a group pilgrimage visiting the Shrine

Once per year, on a day chosen personally by each member of the faithful

A Plenary Indulgence is the remission of all temporal punishment due to sin. One can seek to gain it for oneself or for the Souls in Purgatory. To gain each Plenary Indulgence, in addition to performing the specified act, in this case a visit to the Basilica, the faithful must satisfy the following conditions: Confession with 20 days, reception of Holy Communion, prayer for the Holy Father’s intentions [traditionally an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be], and freedom from attachment to sin. A maximum of one Plenary Indulgence may be gained per day.

[Source: Manual of Indulgences, 2006. Photo by Corey Seeman.]

A Belated Thank-You to Our Collection Counters

Apologies for neglecting to thank those who regularly volunteer to count our weekly collections:

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Albertus (Detroit), Academy of the Sacred Heart (Bloomfield Hills), and St. Alphonsus and Holy Name of Mary Churches (Windsor) bulletin inserts for January 24, 2016. Hat tip to Alex Begin, author of the column.]

* NB: The SSPX chapels among those Mass sites listed above are posted here because the Holy Father has announced that "those who during the Holy Year of Mercy approach these priests of the Fraternity of St Pius X to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation shall validly and licitly receive the absolution of their sins." These chapels are not listed among the approved parishes and worship sites on archdiocesan websites.

You come into the wall, you turn yourself upside down, blindly reach for the wall with your feet, push off, and hope you are headed in the right direction.

Flip Turns. I have dreaded flip turns for as long as I have been swimming, which is going over a dozen years now.

For most of those years, even though I swam 5 times a week at points, I never learned how to do flip turns. You know those cool turns that Olympic swimmers do and we watch on underwater cameras? They look so easy. They’re not....

... And lo and behold, by the time I reached my 1,000th flip turn, I had it down. I didn't even really need to think about it anymore. So I began to re-focus on my swim mechanics and then I noticed something....

Fr. Roger-Thomas Calmel, O.P. (1914-1975), was a prominent French Dominican and Thomist philosopher, who made an immense contribution to the fight for Catholic Tradition through his writings and conferences. Here is a video interview with his Dominican biographer, Père Jean-Dominique Fabre, O.P.

Modernism makes its victims walk under the banner of obedience, placing under the suspicion of pride any criticism whatsoever of the reforms [Vatican II], in the name of the respect which one owes to the pope, in the name of missionary zeal, of charity and of unity."

"Tradition Will Triumph. We are at peace on this point. Whatever may be the hypocritical arms placed by modernism in the hands of the episcopal collegialities and even of the vicar of Christ, tradition will indeed triumph: solemn baptism, for example, which includes the anathemas against the accursed devil will not be excluded for long; the tradition of not absolving sins except after individual confession will not be excluded for long; the tradition of the traditional Catholic Mass, Latin and Gregorian, with the language, Canon and gestures in conformity with the Roman Missal of St. Pius V, will soon be restored to honor; the tradition of the Catechism of Trent, or of a manual exactly in conformity with it, will be restored without delay.

On the major points of dogma, morals, the sacraments, the states of life, the perfection to which we are called, the tradition of the Church is known by the members of the Church whatever their rank. They hold fast to it without a bad conscience, even if the hierarchical guardians of this tradition try to intimidate them or throw them into confusion; even if they persecute them with the bitter refinements of modernist inquisitors. They are very assured that by keeping the tradition they do not cut themselves off from the visible vicar of Christ. For the visible vicar of Christ is governed by Christ in such wise that he cannot transmute the tradition of the Church, nor make it fall into oblivion. If by misfortune he should try to do it, either he or his immediate successors will be obliged to proclaim from on high what remains forever living in the Church's memory: the Apostolic tradition. The spouse of Christ stands no chance of losing her memory."

"There is no evolution in dogma, only perversion. The Bride of Christ never loses Her memory."

"The Virgin, Mother of God, the Virgin of the Stabat, of the Pentecost and of the miraculous intervention throughout history, the Virtin Mary coredemptrix will keep safe in the Holy Church not only the data instituted by the Lord but also the means from ecclesiastical origin by which the Spouse of Christ will unswervingly stand in the middle of men, both as mediator of salvation and home where God dwells, until the eternal day of the Parousia of our Beloved Savior."

"The only authentic and saving encounter of the church with the world is that of the Confessors without stain, of the inflexible Doctors, of the faithful Virgins and of the invincible Martyrs, covered in the red tunic colored by the blood of the Lamb. ... We must separate ourselves from the world when we are not able to do as the world wishes without offending Christ."

"No one in the Church, whatever his hierarchical rank, be it ever so high, no one has the power to change the Church or the Apostolic Tradition."

"In the Catholic Mass, the priest does not preside in just any manner; he is marked with a divine character which sets him apart for all eternity and thus he acts as the minister of Christ, who performs the Mass through him; he couldnever be likened to a Protestant minister, who is delegated by the faithful to ensure the good order of the assembly. This role is obvious in the rite of Mass established by St. Pius V; it is obscured if not suppressed entirely in the new rite."

"Some object that ... efeining and condemning is not the right method. Very well. Is there any other method that is true to the faith? In the absence of definitions you will only bring erring souls to a vague state of almost-believing. I fail to see how you can claim to be pastoral in this way, and to be seeking the good of sould -- truth for the mind, and conversion for the heart."

"Our Lord in His church is in His death-throes ... in His death-throes because His Church is being buffeted, hindered, obstructed and resisted from within in Her prime task of bringing the Redemption to souls. Not that She is about to disappear, because the gates of hell will not prevail against Her, but that Her own sons, and amongst them leadrs of the hierarchy, are mistreating Her in so vile and wicked a fashion that She can no longer move without crashing to the ground at each step, fainting with exhaustion."

"Why the Latin Mass ONLY? ... to receive, without risk of being deceived, the incarnate and immolated Word of God rendered truly present under the Sacred Species."

"The Modernist is an apostate and a traitor."

"The simple Christian who, consulting tradition on a major point known to all, would refuse to follow a priest, a bishop, an episcopal conference, or even a Pope who would ruin tradition on this point, would not, as some charge, be showing signs characteristic of private judgment or pride; for it is not pride or insubordination to discern what the tradition is on major points, or to refuse to betray them ... is not exercising private judgment; he is not a rebel. He is a faithful Catholic established in a tradition that comes from the Apostles and which no one in the Church can change. For no one in the Church, whatever his hierarchical rank, be it ever so high, no one has the power to change the Church or the Apostolic tradition."

"The Mass belongs to the Church. The new Mass belongs only to modernism. I hold to the Mass which is Catholic, traditional, Gregorian, because it does not belong to Modernism.... Modernism is a virus. It is contagious and one must flee from it. The witness is complete. If I give witness to the Catholic Mass, it is necessary that I abstain from celebrating any other Mass. It is like the burnt incense before the idols: either one grain or nothing. Therefore, nothing."

In "Failure of the Executive Power" (Super Fluma Babylonis), the author assumes that at all times each pope (John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II) acted in what he regarded as the best interests of the Church; hence the criticisms he offers are not intended to reflect on the personal integrity of these popes. Yet, he says, it is possible for a saint to err. What he claims, accordingly, is that each of these popes played a part in the abdication of the Church's authority -- an authority that must be restored if the Church is to exercise the fullness of her sanctifying role in the world.

Recalling this video from last year's October Synod, one of our west coast correspondents writes:

Michael's Vortex on contracepting clergy is truly outstanding. The word that must not be spoken. Perhaps the biggest mistake of Vatican II and the post Council was the shift from child to adult catechesis. While the entire West was reacting to the cultural explosion brought about by the pill, the catechesis of children (at which the Church excelled) was called off for the sake of a misguided rationalism insisting that only critical adults should be catechized. What folly! The one group immune to the sexual revolution thus denied formation in the faith.

Friday, January 22, 2016

In the United States an appeal requesting of Pope Francis that he remove the city’s archbishop, Salvatore Cordileone, published as a full page paid ad in the San Francisco Chronicle Thursday, April 16th, has become a national issue.

The accusation leveled at the archbishop by the signatories is that he contradicts the pope’s “Who am I to judge” by recalling to Catholic school teachers in the archdiocese—with an instruction of last February 4th—the fundamental obligation to abide by the Church’s teaching with respect to life, the family, and sexuality in their words an in their behavior.

The appeal to remove the “intolerant” archbishop contained the signatures of a hundred Catholics of the archdiocese who define themselves modesty as “committed Catholics inspired by Vatican II”.

Among the signatories is Brian Cahill, former director of the local Catholic Charities, and many wealthy benefactors. Charles Geschke is among them, president of Adobe Systems and ex-president of the Board of Trustees of the University of San Francisco. Also among them is Tom Brady, Sr., the father of an American football superstar, Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots.

The San Francisco Chronicle, the newspaper that published the appeal, is the largest circulation daily in northern California, owned by the Hearst group. Its online twin is SFGate, with 22 million visitors monthly.

To reinforce the impact of the appeal’s publication, SFGate also launched a questionnaire with four pre-determined answers—two pro and two con—to this question: Should Pope Francis remove Archbishop Cordileone from the San Francisco archdiocese?

And what came of it? The overwhelming majority lined up not to fire the archbishop, but to defend him.

For the sake of accuracy, at noon on Sunday, April 19th, here are the results of the questionnaire:

77% answered: “No, the archbishop is upholding the values of the Catholic Church.”

11%: “Yes, the archbishop is fostering a climate of intolerance.”

10%: “No, the archbishop is right to oppose same-sex marriage.”

2%: “Yes, his morality clauses for teachers in parochial schools defies the law.”

Evidently, the signatories of the appeal are “prominent Catholics”, but they have neither the pulse nor the following of bulk of the faithful, not even in the U.S. city depicted by the media as the most “liberal”.

R.R. Reno writes, in "Populism," in the Public Square section of the latest issue of First Things (February 2016), p. 3:

The rise of populism in Europe -- and here in the United States by way of Donald Trump -- is a rebellion against postmodern weightlessness. Political commentators are right to point out voter concerns about immigration, economic distress caused by globalization, and the technocratic establishment that holds them in disdain. But underneath these concerns lies a metaphysical disquiet....

.... Populism is a response to this vacuum more than a movement of economic grievances, or even anti-immigrant sentiment. It reflects a concern that our common life lacks metaphysical dignity: There's no longer something greater than utility or some other bloodless good capable of binding us together strongly enough that the rich and powerful remain accountable. [emphasis added]

Reno is almost always worth reading; and whatever one thinks of some of the positions taken by writers at First Things, it is well worth getting a subscription and reading it.

Thursday, January 21, 2016

The CWR Staff's “The Best Books I Read in 2015” (Catholic World Report, December 31, 2015) is, as the annual recapitulation always is, a stimulating bibliographical feast, not least because of the ever-insightful, free-flowing eloquence of our own correspondent, Joseph Martin's contribution. I always find myself adding books to my Amazon wish list.

Fr. John Zuhlsdorf addresses the matter of this brave new world innovation here today, with these observations:

First, in the Ordinary Form the footwashing rite or “Mandatum” is optional. It need not be done at all. Neither can any bishop or priest be constrained to do it. Fathers, you can simply drop it. If you are being pressured to add women or girls to those chosen, don’t do the rite.

Second, this does not apply to the Extraordinary Form. Fathers. Think about it. ¡Hagan lío!

Third, just as in the cases of Communion in the hand and the use of altar girls, both of which were legalized after years of blatant disobedience to the law, this move by Pope Francis could be interpreted to mean that liturgical norms mean very little and, worse, that liturgy means very little. Thus, we move deeper into a brave new antinomian world. (emphasis added) I suspect, however, that it one were to choose to make it up as you go (disobey) in the traditional direction rather than in the innovative direction, the world would be brought down on one’s head.

Monday, January 18, 2016

Commenting upon Joshua's battle against the Amorites at Gibeon, in which Joshua chased them along the road that goes to Beth Horon (which gives the Battle of Beth Horon its name -- not to be confused with the Battle of Beth Horon of AD 166), an early 20th century biblical commentator, Jessy Lyman Hurlbut argues, in his Story of the Bible (1932), pp. 154-155, that this battle (recorded in the 10th chapter Joshua) may have been the greatest battle in its effects in world history. Why? Not because it was the battle in which Joshua asked God to make the sun stand still so that he could finish the job. Joshua was in the process of undertaking the conquest of Canaan, and the Amorites were banding together against him. The author writes:

If ever in all the history of the world there was a battle when the sun might well stand still, and the day be made longer, to make the victory complete, it was that day more than any other. For on that day the land was won by the people of the Lord. If Israel had been defeated and destroyed, instead of Canaan, then the Bible would never have been written, the worship of the true God would have been blotted out, and the whole world would have worshipped idols. The battle that day was for the salvation of the world as well as of Israel. So this was the greatest battle in its results that the world has ever seen. There have been many battles where more men fought and more soldiers were slain, than at the battle of Beth Horon. But no battle in all the world has had such an effect in the years and the ages after, as this battle.

The Argument of the Month (AOTM) Club promises to have the audio of the debate available at their site soon (check the 'Media' link on the previously linked site). They have a before-the-fact "preview" of the debate on the above website, and there's also this pre-debate discussion between Ferrara and Michael Matt. My hunch is that it would have been pretty predictable; yet it would have been fun.

This “roccia” (rock) will never crumble, nor flake, given that its solidity is guaranteed in the text of Matthew until the end of time. The “rock” remains and no one will scratch it, implicated as she is in a divine undertaking. But on occasion some men may take from others the vision of the rock. Other things may be made to seem like the rock, other things that may appear to all as such. The distinction is a profound one, even if the errors of these men are capable of veiling the reality (truth), they cannot destroy it. The question, easy for all, that presents itself is one of the visibility of the rock. If then situations should occur, that took from certain men the visibility of the “roccia” (rock) in the Church, the consequences would be grave. Those that convert to the Church, convert because they are convinced that they have found the “roccia” (rock), not doubt, hesitation, contradiction or doctrinal anarchy. One converts when one knows that ones hope is not futile. Taking away the visibility of the “roccia” (rock): what happens? (emphasis added)

What happens? Indeed. As a weary Guy Noir writes, "Discouragement, fatigue, and finally doubt as to whether the Church or any religious ideas matter much at all in our Era of Grand Syncretism."

Well, I have no doubt that the Church, in the final analysis, matters very much, because the deposit of the Faith received via Sacred Tradition remains very much intact no matter what the vicissitudes of our current storm. But do not be deceived, the theological shenanigans we have seen over the last decades do take their toll and cannot be justified or papered over by means of facile smoke-and-mirror 'explanations.' The damage is real.

Noir goes on to point out what he calls "a sobering if not anesthetizing remedy" from John Senior's book, The Remnants - the "Final Essays" of John Senior, a Columbia University grad who co-founded the Integrated Humanities Program at the University of Kansas, and was Professor of English, Comparative Literature, and Classics at Cornell, among other institutions. Here I quote him just as I received his words from Noir:

We are under the authority of theologians who deny the laws of contradiction, sufficient reason, and cause/effect. They really believe that the dialectical philosophy of Marx and Engels can be reconciled with Christian revelation. In practical management this means a zig to the right and a zag to the left while steering for the Norvus Ordo Saeculrum. Chop off Lefebvre, and throw a sop to trade... They have refused the face the issue -- which is not nostalgia... but the shipwreck of the Catholic Church. I mean a new Mass, a new catechism, a new morality, a flagrantly mistranslated Bible, an architecture and music which constitute a thoroughly orchestrated and rehearsed attack on Catholic doctrine and practice. Read the papal statement ten times if you can. You don't need arguments. It constitutes itself proof of its own radical insincerity. It cannot be explained away as a misunderstanding of the issue; it is quite simply a misrepresentation... This pseudo-Church, imposed upon the real subsistent one since the Vatican Council, is like [a] glass confessional. Anyone can see -- and everybody does -- that whatever it is, it is not the Church of our Fathers.

His Grace Abba Raphael of Cairo, Egypt, on the Holy Trinity, speaking in Arabic with English subtitles. Can you imagine a TV show here featuring rigorous and detailed discussion of Trinitarian theology sustained for a full hour?

January doldrums are setting in, along with the grey skies that induce them. Festivities of the Christmas season seem already well behind us. Yet these were splendidly celebrated here, as I think all
will agree, with the generous participation of our parishioners whose reward was to have been a part and
witness to the ceremonies of this most joyous season of the year. My thanks to everybody who put forth much effort in assisting to make these days happen. As Easter comes early this year, we will soon be entering the Lenten season, which always seems to be just the needed thing after the excesses of the holidays. I look forward to this greater concentration of spiritual energies in order to ready myself for the demands of Holy Week.

I have been doing reading once again on the period of the Reformation in England. It’s more evident to me now that the liturgical changes that were decreed for the universal Church in the wake of Vatican II mirrored the cruelly imposed demands of the Reformers. In nearly every respect what the sixteenth century revolutionaries foisted upon the people of England were adopted and forced upon the laity of the Catholic Church by the framers of our new liturgy. Could this have been mere coincidence, when so very many features of the Protestant liturgical change were replicated in our experience of the new
liturgy? The gradual and near unending series of innovations we witnessed included the ruination of our churches, the barbarous removal of much sacred art, the replacement of tables for altars, the alteration of time-honored prayers of the Roman Missal dating from earliest Christian centuries, the modifications of language and church music, the reduction (but not, however, entire extrication) of
words which affirmed the sacrificial nature of the Mass–by these and many other things, the laity were made to feel disorientation, confusion, and suffer much in being forced to swallow much a good deal of impiety along with the legitimate and reverently introduced liturgical changes.

It was unthinkable for a loyal Catholic to have criticized these measures that were mandated by the Church in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, until sometime in the 1990s then-Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, made his own appraisal of the liturgical fallout which deeply and adversely affected the entire life of the Church. While it is true that the liturgy was not the only change that came forth
after Vatican II, it was the most consequential thing that affected all else. We are in many areas now recovering from the vertigo of these revolutionary times, but we have also far to go to restore tranquility and well-being of the Church in many ways that were formerly known to us. I have always managed to remain hopeful, even in the midst of critical moments, because of the divinely-implanted gift of faith which assures me that Christ promised to remain with His Church–not apart from it–until the end of time and that hell’s gates would not prevail against it.

Let hope then be the dominant theme to carry you through this new year, and over the slump of post-partum (referring to the Lord’s birth) depression you may be feeling. “God is our refuge and
strength; therefore we will not fear...though the mountains be transferred into the heart of the sea.... The Lord of Hosts is with us, our Protector is the God of Jacob” (from Ps. 45).